Lady Bucs hold off No. 57 Georgia State for first ranked win of the season

Stupak

Sunday, February 07, 2010

BRISTOL, Tenn. (Feb. 7, 2010) -After somewhat of a disappointing finish in its loss at No. 54 Virginia Tech Saturday the ETSU women's tennis team rebounded by outlasting No. 57 Georgia State 4-3 Sunday in a marathon of a match that lasted over five and half hours inside the Bristol Racquet and Fitness Club in Bristol, Tenn.

With the win ETSU evened its overall record to 2-2, while Georgia State fell to 0-4.

"Overall, I'm pleased that we got a win over a great team in Georgia State," said head coach Steve Brooks. "When you play in a long match like we did today you really get to see the character of your team. After we lost our early lead I was worried a bit about what kind of response our girls would have, but they showed great heart as we pulled out this win."

ETSU opened the score by outlasting the Lady Panthers in the doubles portion of the match. The lone Lady Buc highlight came as senior Yevgenyia Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) and junior teammate Kelly Holtzhausen (Johannesburg, South Africa) picked up a victory over Diana Nakic and Lindia Hrieistova, 8-5. Despite Georgia State winning at No. 2 in doubles, the Lady Panthers defaulted at No. 3 giving ETSU the quick 1-0 lead.

After Georgia State again defaulted in No. 6 singles, sophomore Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) continued her hot-play this spring with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles over Kir Kemp. With her victory Sunday - that extend the ETSU lead to 3-0 - Jaime now sits unbeaten this season with a perfect 4-0 record.

"Paula has played really well this season," said Brooks. "In a match this close you have to have players that can be relied on and Paula has been our most consistent girl so far. Success in tennis, like so many sports, deals with confidence and Paula has showed how talented she can be when she plays to her capability."

Just when it looked like ETSU would run away for Georgia State, the Lady Panthers stormed back with three straight wins. Tereza Lerova, Katerina Gresova and Nakic led the GSU comeback with wins at No. 2, No. 4 and No. 1.

With the score tied at 3-3 all eyes turned to the final match of the day between ETSU junior Andra Voinea (Brasov, Romania) and Hrieistova. Voinea held the early lead in the first set after the third-year Lady Buc tired to serve out at 5-4. Unfortunately, for ETSU the Georgia State sophomore held strong by breaking Voinea serve and tying the set at 5-5. With the momentum on her side Hrisistova then took the remaining two games for the first-set 7-5 win.

With Voinea's back against the wall the former all-conference player reacted by crushing Hrisistova in the final two sets 6-2, 6-1.

"I'm so proud of Andra this afternoon," said Brooks. "Ever since she's been at ETSU, Andra has been a clutch player when we needed it. Sometimes you have girls that thrive when the pressure is on and Andra seems to be that type of girl."

The Lady Bucs return to action in two weeks with a 3 p.m. contest Feb. 26 at Davidson.